Today's Phantom, Tomorrow's Superior
by Gabriel Seraph
Summary: Vlad tasks Jedikiah with capturing Danny, but he naturally hides a few details. Like the fact that Danny doesn't have ghost powers anymore. But Jedikiah might still get the mission he wants, with two potential breakouts being involved. AU for both shows, set after Phantom Planet and before the start of Tomorrow People 2013. Action violence, moderate language, Danny/Sam moments.


AN: If I'm not mistaken, this might well be the first _Tomorrow People 2013_ crossover on this site, and only the second fic featuring the reboot at all. That said, I hope to do this new show justice - and help attract new fans in the process!

Science? I don't need no stinking science! Sanity-free storytelling, that's the order of the day from me!

R&R and enjoy!

Today's Phantom, Tomorrow's Superior

Chapter 1

Masters Mansion, Somewhere in the Colorado Rockies

Vlad Masters looked up as the doorbell rang, far in the distance. He crossed the room to the intercom speaker and pressed the button, saying "Enter." On a screen next to the speaker, the camera in the entryway focused on the opening front door, which was being pushed by an unassuming blond man. Slightly scruffy, wearing a long black coat. Vlad was surprised he'd never met this man before; he looked like he could have easily been a ghost. Or, at least, another Halfa, like himself.

"Mr. Masters?" said the blond man as he stepped into the conference room. "Jedikiah Price. We spoke on the phone." Jedikiah removed his duster and draped it over the back of a chair before shaking hands with Vlad.

Vlad pulled his ancient PDA out and consulted the resume he'd received by e-mail the day before. "Mr. Price. Yes, your qualifications are most impressive. I'd say you were a shoo-in for the job, but that would, sadly, be the understatement of the century."

"What are you saying?" asked Jedikiah. "I got the job?"

"Considering you were the only applicant..." Vlad turned off his PDA and pocketed it. "In any case, however, I highly doubt anyone else would be willing to agree to this kind of task. You should know, it was precisely your agency that recommended you. And very highly too, I might add."

Jedikiah smiled politely, mechanically. "I try. So what's the job, exactly?"

Vlad stood up and said, "If Ultra knew about me, they'd want to capture and experiment with me the way they do with those...what do you call them? _Homo superior?_"

Wincing, Jedikiah said, "We try to avoid using that name, for obvious reasons. It's rather ridiculous, don't you think?"

"I have to agree," said Vlad. "But the Tomorrow People are not important right now. What is important...is this." He clapped his hands, and a ring of black energy appeared around him, expanding until it covered his whole body. Then it faded away, revealing a deathly pale thing with spiky black hair and a red cape on a white suit, like some kind of silly cartoon villain.

Jedikiah almost fell out of his chair. "What did you just do?"

"I'm half ghost, Mr. Price," said Vlad. "Rest assured, this didn't happen naturally. It's not something you can worry your little head about right now." He changed back to human in another blast of black energy-light. "The thing is...there's another person just like me. He's quite dangerous, really, doesn't know how to control his powers. Poor kid."

"And you want me to capture him and deliver him to you," said Jedikiah. "Not to worry, I've had lots of experience with breakouts before. How should this be any different?"

"As far as I'm aware, none of your breakouts have had the ability to fire green plasma bolts from their hands," Vlad pointed out. "Or walk through walls no matter how secure they are, or make walls of sound capable of tearing down skyscrapers. This child may seem innocent, but he could be a major threat to national security if he remains in the world unchecked."

Jedikiah nodded, unaware of how much Vlad was stretching the truth to sell his point to him. "I see. Well, as you said, I am more than qualified for a job of this nature. I'll just need to bring my team with me and then we'll be ready to go. Where does this kid live?"

Vlad held up the PDA and showed him the picture of the target's ID card. The boy in question was seventeen years old, pale and dark-haired, with a jaunty but awkward smile like so many young people getting their first driver's license picture taken. His address was listed in Amity Park, Washington, and his name was listed as Danny Fenton.

Jedikiah nodded again. "I accept your mission, Mr. Masters."

"Vlad, please," said Vlad as they shook hands again. "We should be on first-name terms, should we not?"

* * *

Amity Park, Washington, two days later

Danny Fenton sat behind the teacher's desk in the Spanish classroom. It was his first time as T.A. and he was looking forward to an hour each day of relative laziness and freedom. He watched as the kids sidled into the room and took their seats, even taking the time to wave hi to Dani, now a sophomore. It still amazed Danny how easily people could fail to notice certain things, like the fact that this girl was basically him but female, leading people to wonder if they were some kind of half-identical twins. _Little do they know_, Danny thought.

Soon, everyone had come to class, and Señora Sanchez approached the board to begin the lesson by having all the students introduce themselves - even though this was Spanish 3 and doubtless everyone had met each other at least once already anyway. Danny took the time to simply scan the room, look around aimlessly.

Nothing caught his eye until he saw the boy sitting next to Dani, who had just introduced himself to the class, calling himself Stephen Jameson. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with brown hair and surprisingly big eyebrows. Danny couldn't even tell how old this dude was supposed to be; he could have been anywhere in his teens. Hell, he could have passed for someone in his twenties, easily. Danny made a mental note to ask Tucker if he'd discovered any evidence yet that they were, in fact, living in some kind of twisted TV drama, as he'd come to semi-jokingly suspect way back in freshman year when Danny's ghost powers had been revealed to the whole world several times, only for him to somehow erase it from just about everyone's memories.

As Danny looked at this guy, his spine tingled, and his breath turned pale and visible, almost the way it had done when ghosts were near, but more white than blue this time. At first, he wanted to think that it was just a fluke, somehow caused by Dani's presence, but instinctively he knew it wasn't. After all, the color was different, and he'd been focused on Stephen, not Dani. That couldn't really have been a coincidence.

And in any case, Danny didn't even think he would ever have been able to sense ghosts again. Not since he'd split his human and ghost selves off each other for good three years earlier.

AN: In answer to Matt's guest review: I didn't have "Ultimate Enemy" in mind, more like the way Danny split up in "Identity Crisis." The ghost half pretty much made his own way back to the Ghost Zone in this story. And while we're on the subject, I suddenly have an idea for a potential other fic in which that aspect of the story is detailed. Stay tuned!


End file.
